FIG. 1 is a prior-art schematic diagram of a low drop-out voltage regulator (“LDO”) integrated circuit (“IC”) 110 in a simplified typical use application. The LDO IC 110 may be manufactured by a first semiconductor manufacturer and used as a component in an electronic circuit 115 by a second manufacturer. The example circuit 115 includes an input voltage source 118, an input filter capacitor 121, an output filter capacitor 125, and a load resistor 130. The load resistor 130 represents the load at the regulated output of the LDO 110.
The second manufacturer may wish to perform computer characterizations and simulations of the behavior of the circuit 115 under various steady-state and transient conditions of input voltage, load, external electromagnetic interference (“EMI”), etc. Such characterizations and simulations may include the behavior of individual components and portions of the circuit 115 that are shown as lumped into the load resistor 130 of FIG. 1. However, the second manufacturer may not have available the exact configuration and component values of the circuit internal to the LDO IC 110. The aforesaid “blind spot” may require the second manufacturer to perform complex, time-intensive characterizations and modeling of the LDO IC 110 as a preliminary step to modeling the circuit 115 itself.